CoreLogic: Number Of Underwater Properties Keeps Shrinking

About 1 million borrowers regained equity in 2015, bringing the total number of mortgaged residential properties with equity at the end of the year to approximately 46.3 million, or 91.5% of all mortgaged properties, according to CoreLogic.

Nationwide, borrower equity increased by $682 billion in 2015.

Meanwhile, approximately 120,000 properties lost equity in the fourth quarter of 2015 compared with the third quarter of 2015. This is partly because home price appreciation slowed considerably in the fourth quarter – in fact, some markets saw prices begin to decrease.

As of the end of the fourth quarter, about 4.3 million properties, or 8.5% of all homes with a mortgage, were with negative equity. That’s an increase of 2.9% compared with the third quarter, when 4.2 million homes, or 8.3%, were in negative equity. However, it is a decrease of 19.1% compared with 5.3 million homes, or 10.7%, in the fourth quarter of 2014.

The national aggregate value of negative equity was about $311 billion at the end of the fourth quarter. That’s an increase of approximately $5.5 billion, or 1.8%, compared with $305.5 billion in the third quarter. However, it is a decrease of 10.7% compared with $348 billion in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Of the more than 50 million residential properties with a mortgage, approximately 9.5 million, or 18.9%, are “under-equitied,” meaning they have less than 20% equity. About 1.2 million, or 2.3%, are “near-negative equity,” meaning they have less than 5% equity.